gfiles magazine

September 27, 2015

The question of the Question Hour

The
most important postulate about parliamentary democracy is that Parliament is
between the government and the people. The government is accountable to the
people and this accountability is secured by the people through their
representatives in Parliament. Accountability is an important adjunct of
government, irrespective of the form of democracy. If the government is
democratic then it has to be accountable, otherwise, in my view, it will not be
democratic to the extent it eschews accountability. It is an old adage that
‘the government of the people, for the people and by the people—shall not
perish from the earth’. In the Indian context, I have added two things to
it—provided free and fair elections, free from muscle and money power, are
conducted and a sense of accountability prevails continuously in the
government. Otherwise the government will become autocratic and aristocratic
like any other one.

About us

gfiles is the country's first independent magazine written, designed and produced for India's civil services—the vast and formidable
network of bureaucracies and public sector organisations that
provides continuity and stability to this nation's
governance.